A close shave for MAS. The SIN team has to regather and regroup for the bronze medal play-off tomorrow.
Danny gave away the serve to make it an impossible 20-14 for MAS. And MAS took it with a steadier finish 21-14 on SIN's unfortunate disarray towards the end. I hope MAS will win the final. Congrats to MAS. A creditable performance from SIN.
Frankly, as I've said at the beginning, Danny was unsteady and Vanessa became too impatient. They have to learn to play it cool. So many unforced errors from both.
Well it seems SIN has just captured the gold against MAS in table tennis 3-0. And AUS took the bronze against IND.
Overall, Singapore XD did well, but they lacked the fine control and variation in pace. Malaysian coaches saw that and told the players to exploit it. The change in strategy worked very well, and from the second half of the first game onwards, Singapore XD had problems coping. Hopefully, today's match will make them become better players.
Of course Danny has overcommitted. Chan was much fresher as he did not play in doubles. When Danny is not performing to expectation Vanessa became impatient and tried hard to kill the shots in front which resulted in too many unforced errors. How can they hope to win by giving away easy shots?
Chill... It's not about Danny double hatting... of course that would affect him. More of the tactical part of the game.
In table tennis, at the CWG, SIN is the team to beat and she will settle for nothing less than gold in both individual and team events, esp for the ladies with world no.4 Feng Tianwei in the lead. Their badminton counterparts certainly have a lot of catching up to do. It'll be great for the still relatively young, the 18-yr-old Liang Xiaoyu to clinch a bronze, not impossible considering the top 3 contenders are Sindhu, Kirsty Gilmour and Tee Jing Yi, the last of whom she has just beaten in the team tie today.
Of course more gold medals to be won in the individual events. Hope SIN can win some medals, especially for Yao Lei and Sari. Hope LXY can get a medal as well, depending on whether the draw is favourable.
Oops, I forgot to mention Michelle Li's chances at the CWG, I think she is a contender for gold. Let's hope SIN Liang Xiaoyu gets a good draw. I don't expect her to go for gold, a bronze will do nicely for a start.
yeah! Michelle Li has defenitly her chance to win the gold medal , good luck for her does someone have a link where the other semi-final can be watched live ?
Happily once again there is live telecast of the bronze medal playoff on Mediacorp channel U (107) now on.
Danny has got a powerful, killer smash but he must also improve on his placement shots. Good thing Vanessa is effective both in front and at the rear, smashing when needed to. Hadn't expected IND to field Ponnappa/Gurusaidutt as a XD pairing, probably they didn't want Dewalkar to play both Mixed and Men's doubles, stretching his fitness. Wonder if this is IND's scratch pairing, they seem not bad together.
Good, Danny is aware his opponents are anticipating some of his smashes and goes for drop shots,pushes and half smashes sometimes.
